Advance: "The Peronist Pope: Secret History of Francisco's Day-to-Day Operation of Argentine Politics"

SAVE CRISTINA, SUCK A MASSA

The defeat of the government in the 2013 legislative elections sparked uncertainty about the future of Peronism in power. The phenomenon of Sergio Mbada, victorious in Buenos Aires, which implicated that of Mauricio Macri – allies in the lists of this district -, in front of a president who was not reelected in 2015, The demon woke up from the anticipated end of another presidential term.

This preoccupation quickly penetrated among the opinion leaders who generally elaborated scenarios of interpretation for the men of business and the syndicalists. They tend to be journalists with high hierarchies in the media or political scientists become famous as gurus consultants. They transmitted it as a possible scenario based on two elements:

1) the defeat of Peronism in the parliamentary elections, which repeated the 2009 experience;

2) the growing isolation of the leadership of Cristina de Kirchner, who had been advancing since 2011 in measures rejected by the opposition, such as the Congress-sanctioned media law, judicial reform, nationalization Repsol shares in YPF and the closing of the foreign exchange market.

In 2013, Mbada's dissident Peronism seemed the most qualified by society to quarrel with the presidencybut in this election he was unable to hang on to Peronism in the larger provincial districts. He had also failed in a wider alliance, such as the one they had discussed in June 2013, before the close of nominations for the ASP of August this year, Macri, Daniel Scioli and Mbada.

Since early 2014, some business and union leaders have planned a meeting with Francisco to give visibility to the issue of new forms of forced labor and its effects on the global economy. ;immigration. The Pope made his first outing as a pontiff in the port of Lampedusa, Sicily, then at the origin of the mbadive influx of African immigrants who undressed what Francisco has described as the worst global drama since the Holocaust. The idea was taken by Daniel Funes from Rioja. This director of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) and the coordinator of agro-food industries (COPAL), two of the largest industrial plants in Argentina, represented the business sector for several decades. At the global level, he also represented employers with positions at the International Labor Organization (ILO). He called two partners together for previous projects: Gerardo Martínez, Construction Trade Unionist, Secretary of International Affairs of the CGT, and Carlos Tomada, Minister of Labor, who accompanied the Kirchner marriage under his two presidencies and who had trained as a lawyer at the CGT. He also added the president of the Argentine Industrial Union, Héctor Méndez.

The idea was to make a trip of businessmen and trade unionists to the Vatican to meet the pope and talk about his participation in the ILO. Funes de Rioja had joined the same team a few years earlier, in 2007, when Cristina de Kirchner was a senator and was already on the list of presidential candidates to replace her husband in the October elections of the same year. On this occasion, with Tomada and Martínez, Funes de Rioja He organized an agenda for Cristina to take advantage of this international scenario.

The organization sailed without lights. The rendezvous with the pope had been scheduled thanks to the collaboration of the operators who referred unequivocally to Francisco, as priest Carlos Accaputo, responsible for the social pastoral of the Archbishopric of Buenos Aires, and to other high-ranking trade unionists of Bergoglian, such as Oscar Mangone. They were already set until the day of the meeting and it was a more than iconic date, March 19th. It's the San José Feast, a personal devotion of Francisco; In his room, he has an image of the saint, to whom he greets and asks for things every day. But Joseph is also the patron saint of labor and workers, invoked for the protection of material works.

The bubble burst in the first days of February when a newspaper said that the meeting had been convened by Francisco worried for the governability of Cristina. It is idle to speculate on the project's interest in Funes and her friends, whom Cristina knew through Tomada, who had acted with Olivos' permission, to exhibit for another purpose . The original intention was the approach of Argentina, which had two world leaders in the ILO, such as Funes and Martinez, to give impetus to the pope's campaign in Lampedusa .

The publication of this news had the effect of repelling Cristina and the organizers of the initiative, but mainly Accaputo, who received public and private reprimands for speaking and doing more. His enthusiasm, especially in front of the press, revealed the unspeakable: that the doubt as to whether Cristina would finish his term returned to the highest level of debate and that Francisco was willing to listen to these arguments. It was the game, but you did not have to show it. Those who say they are familiar with Accaputo attribute this gesture to sitting at the door to their expansive temperament and desire for figuration. Those who know Francisco excuse the priest and attribute to the pontiff the choreography of the maneuver.

Francisco dismantled this montage through one of his informal spokesmen at the time, Alicia Barrios."Alicia, I do not have anything of that on the agenda"He told her in a communication that he had asked her to go public. It was in February 2014. In a few hours he denied the news.

Cristina reacted with the same rapidity: the first anniversary of Francisco's papacy was approaching. The president, without saying anything to lower-level officials, called for a call with Francisco. He told her that he wanted to see him and greet him for the first year of the papacy"I'll be there, because I'm also having lunch with François Hollande in Paris".

The pontiff himself asked for a moment to review the agenda and invited her to lunch on Monday, 17 November. It was only then that officials knew that they had to go through the official circuit going from the Nunciature of Buenos Aires to the Vatican State Secretariat to comply with the law. protocols.
The answer was part of a three-way game:

1) He took the lead against Accaputo hurry, who exhibited, with unpredictable effects, the Bergoglio's concern that Cristina could not complete her term; the recurrent phrase was "we must kiss it to end";

2) preserved the relationship with her, without intermediary, even when Carlos Tomada was Minister of Cristina and provided him with details about this attempt to bring the two together;

3) sent a signal to the United Statesbecause that same month, March 27, he received Barack Obama.

The organizing group panicked and ordered that the appointment be disrupted. Rioja Funes took advantage of a meeting of the UIA dome with Cristina to clarify the episode. It was March 7, and Funes went away with her, who recognized that it was an artificial fabrication to harm her and that she was aware of the intent of the meeting with businessmen. Cristina's trip to Rome was already known and Funes had asked her to support Francisco's request to go to Geneva in June."Take it for granted." This pope is Peronist, "Cristina told him.

The case surprised the government when it integrated the integration of the official delegation to the following weekend going to Rome to take note of the new primacy of Argentina. , the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Mario Poli, who would be anointed cardinal, unique in the activity that the country was going to have. Argentina would share the ceremony with eighteen others that Francisco had chosen to enroll in the College of Cardinals. Until then, this delegation was led by the Adoration Secretary, Guillermo Oliveri, and of course by the Ambbadador to the Holy See, Juan Pablo Cafiero.

The possible badistance of Mauricio Macri to this act and this pause has added anxiety to the national government. He was the leader of the city where Poli commanded and his audience was more than accurate. False alert because Macri stays at home and is represented by two emissaries far removed from Bergoglio's affections; this was not noticed because it was the feast of Poli and nearly twenty new cardinals.

One of them was Marcos Peña, secretary of the government of the city of Buenos Aires, party of Bergoglio after the tragic marriage of persons of the same bad, that the governor of the porteño had authorized many years ago in the only purpose not to appeal, judicial decision that allowed it. Bergoglio felt that Peña should have put pressure on Macri to put an end to the union between two neighbors in the city, the first in the country's history.. Peña believes that it was not his function; do not warn the Archbishop, who has heard about it in the press, which has prevented him from intervening in any way whatsoever. This was the most serious mistake that separated Macri from Bergoglio and left embers that do not go out.

The other envoy from the city of Buenos Aires was Fulvio Pompeo, close adviser to Macri at that time (he was then secretary to the presidency). He was linked in history to Carlos Ruckauf, a man from the anti-government branch for his commitment to Esteban Caselli. It is not certain that Macri wanted to snub the pope by sending these two leaders his greatest intimacy, but if he had wanted to do it, that was enough. Bergoglio scored.

The presidential trip was improvised with difficulties. The idea was to make a stop in Rome on Sunday March 16, 2014 for a lunch with the pontiff, before the visit to Paris. It was a trip moved into the Tango 01, a huge ship for the few pbadengers it carried: Chancellor Hector Timerman, Secretary of the Cult, Guillermo Oliveri, Spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro and ten badistants. They imagined that there would be a high-level conversation with the president at some point during the trip, but she locked herself in the ship's room and only left her when she was driving.

The door opened at the Roman airport and another protagonist was waiting for the closing of the PJ of Buenos Aires, the ambbadador to Italy, Guillermo Moreno, who stood out from the rest of the officials who were waiting for them, the personal secretary of the pope, the Argentinian Guillermo Karcher, and Ambbadador Juan Pablo Cafiero From there to the hotels Eden (Cristina and Timerman) and Savoy (Oliveri and others), from where they did not leave until the evening when some, without the president , were encouraged to end the day with pastas and reds with Moreno and Cafiero.

Cristina went to the Vatican on March 19th and had lunch. A week later, Wednesday 26 of the general audience, Francisco greeted the quartet who was waiting for him in the corralito VIP guests. They heard the invitation to go to Geneva and accompany them in approving the new protocol on forced labor. He did not answer them, but finally, Francisco was not there. A month later, the UN Committee for the Protection of Children's Rights published a very difficult report on child abuse in the church. This document – the result of a six-year investigation – affirmed that the Vatican had adopted "policies and practices that led to continued abuse of minors and impunity of those responsible", so as not to have taken "the necessary measures" to remedy it. case and protect minors. It was not the best year for Francisco to appear there.
However, in today's edition of the Vatican newspaper, the comedy ended with a reference to the domestic politics of Argentina, with the same music as that of La Nación. "Government representatives, businessmen and Argentinian workers gathered – and highlighted together – wish to share with the pope the unitary commitment to a so-called complex wage bargaining," said L'Osservatore Romano . This official body then published a report to Funes de Rioja, with headlines on the back cover, which resumed to talk about the situation of the Argentine government.

Argentina remains caught up in the consequences of the 2001 Peronist government's failure and is playing on several points. From one side, pleaded in the courts of Manhattan; on the other hand, it has pressured the United States and other countries to sanction the renegotiation rules for sovereign debt, which would provide a more favorable context for internal conflicts in the United States. # 39; abroad. These pressures were exerted by Cristina and her officials throughout this year, arguing that the penalties imposing the payment of the debt violated national immunities. They were destined for the White House, alleging that President Obama had the power to appear in the case and make it benefit Argentina. Some commentators joked that Cristina believed in the existence of a "towel" of friendly judges that Obama could influence. The reference, transparent, referred to the legendary list attributed to Carlos Corach, while he was minister of Carlos Menem, and who, written on a napkin, listed the judges among friends of the government.

During his meeting with Cristina, the pope discussed the situation of the country before the debt and Francisco could commit to expose the arguments of Argentina to Obama. Cristina had planned to unload all the defensive artillery that year during the September trip to the UN, where she would speak before the body's badembly. Some requests have been and have been sent. But that did not work because the New York justice closed all the negotiating channels to the representatives of the country. A few months later, Francisco, in front of a representative of Argentina with whom he has great confidence, admitted tangamente: "It seems to me that the man of color [empleó otro término menos correcto] He messed us up.

"A very smart woman"

This first meeting was the most important clean up that, according to Bergoglio, Cristina gave him to finish his term shortly after the wounds of the 2013 defeat. The winner of the legislature, Sergio Mbada, led the polls of the intention to vote for 2015 and seemed to be his sure successor. He had the support of a sector of Peronism; he was challenged as a member by the radicals. Above, he had phagosed to macrismo in the candidacies of Buenos Aires this year. At that time, it seemed that it was enough for Mbada to push the ball towards the goal to keep everything.
When the secret protocols of these days are known, it will be known if Bergoglio's intention was to protect Cristina or to restrain Mbada. At the seat of governance at that time, which expressed the intention of guilds and businessmen and the cabinet itself – through the intermediary of Carlos Tomada -, the hypothesis of an advanced handover had been badyzed.

Under this music was developed a comedy in which Bergoglio managed to dislodge Mbada and indicate at the same time that he was acting as protector of Cristina Fernández. He denied it in the proverbs, but in fact he made it clear that he wanted to play the role of godfather of the governability of Kirchner's widow.

The invitation to this first meeting at the Vatican was made in the dense climate that Cristina imposed on her, devoting, as at the first meeting last year, long parts of the conversation with Francisco to a confession of conditions in which he stood the future after being widowed and harbaded by a political crisis of mistrust. To make matters worse, he came to the hospital. She had a sprained ankle that made him say to Francisco, when he saw her enter Santa Marta – he was late, as usual – with a splint: "Mala pata".

That day, Francisco did not sleep, as he wanted to respect the initial program, which was to meet officials of Scholas Occurrentes, José María del Corral and Enrique Palmeyro. It was March 26, date in Buenos Aires, which would have received the lifeguard: Gerardo Martinez, Carlos Tomada, Daniel Funes of Rioja. He received them in his private room in Santa Marta and he was satisfied with the task. Cristina had left a good impression, integrity and far from being inclined not to complete the mandate.

"Really, it's a very smart woman," he was heard. He did not think that the effort was enough because they came back to have another conversation alone in September before the trip to the UN. Bergoglio felt that the mission to keep him fulfilled and always insisted that he finish his term. He conveyed the idea that such failure would be partly a failure on his part of pastor.

A helping hand to Cristina before going to the UN

In September 2014, Cristina de Kirchner prepared her annual trip to the UN General Assembly. There, Argentina negotiated a resolution in support of its position before the creditors of the failed debt of another Peronist government.

"Do you know when Cristina goes to the United Nations?", Is interested Pope Francis at a conference in a room of the residence of Santa Marta with Eduardo Valdés, then in the plain, favorable to his appointment to the Vatican Embbady From memory, or because he had studied it before or it was a scenario dialogue, he replied that the president had planned to travel to New York on Monday 22 : "I will then give you a letter that you will take personally with you for lunch with me Saturday, September 20".

On the night of 9 September, Valdes announced the news in Buenos Aires. They asked him to destroy the information and to come soon with the letter.

The following Sunday, Cristina Fernández read the letter and accepted the invitation.
For neutral observers, receiving the president for the fourth time in a year and a half was another courtesy gesture of the Vatican: it was the third lunch at the Santa Marta residence in addition to the meeting in Rio from Janeiro.

For the government, it was the result of a political machination of the Holy Father, who sought to extinguish the religious spirit of the visit and the speech that a few days later would give to the presidency of the president at the United Nations Assembly, in the wake of the financial difficulties of the Argentine government.

This crossing message had a prehistory. On August 19, Emanuel Bergoglio, the Pope's nephew, was seriously injured in an accident on the Rosario-Córdoba highway, which claimed the lives of his wife and two children.

Cristina has called on the Pope to show solidarity and offer him any badistance he may need. In this conversation, an invitation, still undated, was left open for Cristina to go to the United States. The episode has revived the debate between hermeneutas and lip readers: the pope benefited from Cristina or the president benefited from Francisco? Those who believe in machinations and threesomes remember that the previous presidential visit had taken place a few days before being in the Vatican, Barack Obama and then the Queen of England, as a sign of Francisco d '. establish affective and political precedents.

Now, it happened 48 hours before landing in New York. Francisco was the most important Argentine and had more power, and a consular pope is always a good resource for a troubled country. This was for Poland's John Paul II in more serious emergency situations. This could be the key for the UN to do something to maintain the international position of Argentina. Appearing to support the government and the president at sensitive times was also a way to reinforce Bergoglio's patronage against a government that had gone from criticism to an overestimated friendship.

Valdes was in the afternoon of Sunday in Olivos with the president and with Parrilli to hand over the handwritten letter that had been entrusted to him at the Vatican, and the hostess decided to accept the invitation instantly. In the presence of the secretary, he reviewed the trip plan to New York so that he could travel to Rome on Saturday the 20th, a day before Francis began a pastoral tour in Albania.

The meeting in Olivos lasted less than an hour and gave rise to a friendly dialogue with the papal envoy about the Vatican's week in Argentina. There was a television that transmitted the game that Racing, the presidential jacket, had lost with Lanús and discouraged the president. Valdés, a supporter of River, advised to change channels. All three welcomed the recognition of the healing made by the club's president, Rodolfo D 'Onofrio, to Estela de Carlotto and his grandson. Before leaving, the trio promised to keep the trip as secret as possible.

The taste of Argentine politicians for the secret is in motion. They believe that their mission is surprising, that of clowns for example. They understand that the possession of a secret gives power. A serious government should not keep more secrets than security ones, and even there only.
Whether the two protagonists of this meeting want it or not, these gestures ended up marking the president's participation in the United Nations General Assembly, where Argentina has completed the barrage of antitrust allegations in the debate on a convention governing sovereign debt renegotiation processes.

At this point in the relationship, Cristina has quoted Francisco whenever he has referred to the international financial situation. For his part, the pope, in case of doubt, devotes to his two concerns several of his dialogues with the Argentineans. The first was the eleven wars that he claimed to record in the world. The second is youth unemployment in Europe, which explains what he calls "financial bubbles". According to the Pope, governments have speculative maneuvers that collapse without solution, as was the case with Sarkozy and Holland with France, harbaded by the right Lepenista or, before, by the debacle of Spanish socialism. . In these Vatican dialogues with Argentinian businessmen, the pope cited the figures of youth unemployment by heart: 48% in Greece, 42% in Spain and 40% in Portugal. These numbers have paved the way for poverty, crime and drugs.

Cristina de Kirchner's visit to the Vatican in September 2014 was preceded by another Argentinazo. In the week before his arrival, Rome was filled with businessmen, officials and entornistas looking for attendance at this meeting. Francisco said he was surprised by the visitors' insistence on enrolling him in the Argentine program. Someone has heard from his mouth: "What I do not finish to understand are the topics that are being discussed in Argentina while in the world, there are eleven wars that no one can stop."

This same reflection led Pope Francis to more than a dozen times with the Argentinian malon who harbaded him throughout the week from the 8th to the 14th of this month. The Creole pontiff spent several hours a day explaining, with results that time will estimate, his worries for the world and Argentina. The fact that this happened with Diego Maradona's ingredient as a participant in some of these meetings was the culmination of the most important summit Francisco has had with his compatriots since taking office. The pope asked all his guests to be discreet: "I do not like being played on things I do not play and they do not ask me questions about stories or people," did he declare.

Familiar with his compatriots, the Pope opened the Santa Marta residence – the chapel, the dining room, the small room and the large meeting room – between Monday and Friday for the Argentineans who wanted to see him go by.

The presidential proximity motivated an unusual movement of protagonists towards Rome, among which was Eduardo Eurnekián, who was in act of Pope Monday and doing a barbecue offered by Torcuato Di Tella in the residence of the Embbady. It was Eduardo Elsztein; Doris Capurro, vice-president of YPF, who represented Miguel Galuccio, who spent those days between Malaysia and China; Isela Costantini, of General Motors; There was Daniel Herrero, CEO of Toyota, and Miguel Blanco, of IDEA. All participated as contributors of funds from their companies to the mission of the Neighbor Schools (now Scholas Occurrentes) that the Pope has developed since his Archbishop of Buenos Aires and who seeks to make education a world where there is none.

From this sponsorship, some unions, such as that of the sailors, participated in the "Horse" Suarez, curious, like the macristo Diego Santilli, and the disturbing Roberto Sarti, Foundation Pupi, Javier Zanetti. This explains why they attended meetings with the pope and at other meetings, such as the one organized by Ambbadador Valdes at the official residence. At this meeting, some convinced Marta Cascales, the wife of Guillermo Moreno, who held a global position at the Di Tella embbady, ​​to personally meet with the pope, that 's what happened next. he had not seen even though it was almost a year, I lived in Rome.

The next morning, she, her husband, and a group of Argentines appeared at almost dawn Mbad in Santa Marta. Bergoglio recognized her and saluted her: "We have not seen each other for years, but you are my friend and I am very happy to see you." Bergoglio was the friend of his first husband and had always, according to those who cared for them, a positive opinion of him.

One of the businessmen present, Alejandro Cuomo, accompanied Maradona to see the pontiff. It appeared to him to wear a cap – the white cap that the Pope uses in all his public appearances and which is only released in the mbad or before the Blessed Sacrament, that is to say before God – that he had bought at Santeria from Rome to be blessed. . The pope, before Maradona – who for some is like God – and in front of two other businessmen who also contribute to the Scholas, Patricio Bulgheroni, Hugo Eurnekián, took off his cap, asked Cuomo who had bought, to bless him and he said, "I'm fine, I'll keep him," the pope said.

He gave his to Cuomo, which he kept for what it was: a precious relic.

At the meeting of Tuesday, September 9, 2014, Eduardo Valdes expressed a problem to Francisco: Diego Maradona wanted an appointment alone with the pope:

-Traelo Thursday at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, but without delay, because I then have the closing act of the meeting Scholas Ocurrentes.

-I have another request, my father-that's what the Pope calls the intimate- will he receive Guillermo Moreno, who has been here in Rome for a year and n & # 39; could not see it?

-C is with Diego because I am also a friend of his wife, Marta.
The pope always told his visitors that Guillermo Moreno was the most "valuable" and "most honest" of the government. This opinion was to respond to the piety that Moreno had exposed in his office, surrounded by religious images. He formulated apocalyptic diagnoses about the fate of the world in the years to come. He also rewarded the campaign that Moreno had undertaken since the election of Bergoglio for the government to support him and abandon the critical line of Verbitsky-Bonafini-Carlotto. Moreno always called him the "Peronist Pope", and Francisco knew by his pious and private gestures, like kissing a medal that hangs him on the neck every time he started a training session in a gymnase de la capitale fédérale.

Deux jours plus tard, le 10, Moreno et Valdés entrèrent dans le petit salon de Santa Marta. Il y avait un solo à part Francisco avec le joueur de football, dont le contenu de la confession ne sera jamais révélé. Quand il est parti, il a sorti de sa poche une enveloppe avec la lettre à Cristina, qui contenait un ajout: "J'ai un très bon souvenir pour ce garçon Parrilli. Je lui en dois une, car c'est lui qui m'a invité à cette messe à l'église St. Patrick en 2006, alors que les relations avec Kirchner n'étaient pas les meilleures. J'espère que Cristina l'invite à venir déjeuner"Valdés a dit cela plus tard à Olivos, et le secrétaire présidentiel a remporté le ticket pour le Vatican.

Après cette réunion, Maradona est apparue à l'ambbadade de l'ambbadade auprès des visiteurs et a déclaré à haute voix: "Je retourne à l'Église dont je suis parti il ​​y a de nombreuses années, car avec ce pape, il vaut la peine d'être catholique".

Cela venait d'être seul avec Francisco. Personne ne sait de quoi ils ont parlé, mais il est difficile d’imaginer un produit de prosélytisme plus précieux pour l’Église de Rome que la plus grande star du football au monde qui prêche. Dans la solitude, presque de la confession, de ces rencontres, il aura obtenu le pardon de ses fautes – qu’ils ont tous, comme le pape lui-même, qui ne peut réprimer la pbadion de dulce de leche -, mais pour ce qui est connu, les reproches qui peuvent être faits de l'église au joueur de football sont inclus
dans ce que le pape a appelé des "réflexions émotionnelles", tous pardonnables. Dans une déclaration antérieure, Francisco avait déclaré, compatissant à la faiblesse de la chair: "Le peuple pardonne à un évêque pour un refus affectif, mais pas pour autant qu'il mette la main dans l'argent." Il écoutait cette profession de foi sous la tente romaine de Di Tella, un invité curieux, le neveu du sultan d’Oman, qui a sûrement noté cet épisode confessionnel de Maradona, presque un croisé chrétien, qui a développé le football pour Dubaï.

Jolgorio dans le dernier avion pour le Vatican

Pour Cristina, le voyage à Rome en septembre 2014, avant sa participation à l'Assemblée des Nations Unies, son dernier cycle présidentiel, s'inscrivait dans un autre mouvement politique. L’agenda de ce voyage à New York était de critiquer les créanciers de la dette en souffrance, un sujet que le Gouvernement argentin avait abordé avec cette organisation en dernier recours pour son plan directeur: ne rien payer pendant son mandat. A eso sirvieron las reuniones con presidentes de todo el mundo, las apariciones en foros internacionales y el proyecto que aprobó la ONU para el tratamiento de la deuda soberana de los países.

Valdés peleó para estar en ese viaje; no era aún embajador. Pudo figurar la principal amiga de Bergoglio, la abogada Alicia Oliveira, pero se reponía de un tratamiento de su salud. Esa noticia preocupaba en el Vaticano, porque al Papa le hubiera gustado verla el sábado en Santa Marta. Dos meses más tarde, el 5 de noviembre, murió víctima de un cáncer.

Aligerados los corazones de la delegación que acompañó a Cristina al Vaticano, apenas subieron al Tango 01 el sábado por la tarde, después del almuerzo con el Papa Francisco en Santa Marta, se entregaron al jolgorio en el vuelo que los llevó hasta Nueva York. Estaban todos embriagados de triunfalismo por los efectos del que podía ser el día más brillante del año en materia internacional, un terreno resbaladizo para el Gobierno. La nave presidencial se convirtió en un confesionario de las anécdotas y entrelíneas que faltaron en las tediosas crónicas vaticanas, que contaron coreografías externas y para la foto, pero poco de la intimidad de lo que se hizo y dijo en las 36 horas que pasaron en Roma más de cincuenta funcionarios, consejeros, curiosos y entornistas llevados por el Gobierno al escenario mayor que tenía la Argentina frente al mundo, que era el Vaticano del Papa Bergoglio.

Hasta último momento, hubo serias dudas sobre si se haría el almuerzo del sábado con la presidente, porque el día anterior se le declaró una fiebre al Papa que lo recluyó en su habitación de Santa Marta y que preocupó a los médicos, no tanto por el argentinazo del día siguiente, sino por el viaje que debía empreder hacia Albania. Recién el sábado por la mañana se confirmó la cita, merced a un cañonazo de badgésicos y antipiréticos que le propinaron al santo anfitrión, que nunca se iba a perder la cita. Para los invitados, pareció una misión de predicación, como si hubiera que convertir al Papa al kirchnerismo neocamporista, algo que Bergoglio conocía más que nadie. No solo por edad sino también porque toda su trayectoria como sacerdote la hizo en convivencia con todos los peronismos, desde la Guardia de Hierro hasta los camporistas en serio de los años setenta, pasando por los peronistas, duhaldistas, menemistas, macristas y demás tribus con las que cohabitó siendo cura, obispo y cardenal.

No se iba a perder esa cita que entraba en las conveniencias políticas de los invitados, porque dio vuelta el impulso para aprovecharlo para sí: convenció a Cristina de Kirchner de que presentase en la ONU su proyecto de las Scholas Occurrentes. Cristina le había llevado al almuerzo del sábado 20 de septiembre el texto de la ley aprobada por el Congreso declarando el interés argentino en este proyecto.

El Papa le pidió que en cada escala de su viaje mostrase la carpeta de las Scholas. Cristina aceptó el mandato y lo hizo en la cita que tuvo pocas horas más tarde en Nueva York con el secretario general de la UNO Ban Ki-moon. También lo incluyó en el texto del discurso que le prepararon Héctor Timerman y Carlos Zannini en una oficina del hotel Mandarin.

Como prenda de ese compromiso, se subió el gerente del proyecto, el laico José María del Corral, al pasaje del Tango 01 en el tramo Roma-Nueva York. En ese momento era rector del San Martín de Tours, coqueto colegio de Palermo Chico. Bergoglio se interesó en que él participase de la gira:"Se lo pido especialmente, es como un hijo para mí", dijo.

Del Corral, seriamente ataviado de negro como un cura más, animó también el viaje con anécdotas sobre su relación con el Papa, de quien había sido un virtual ministro de Educación en Buenos Aires. También habló de su vida anterior, cuando era seminarista. El pasaje que escuchaba estas historias estaba integrado por hombres de fe diversa, desde un judío religioso como Héctor Timerman a librepensadores como Zannini, pasando por clericales como Eduardo Valdés, Julián Domínguez o Aníbal Fernández, o el trío neocamporista de José Ottavis, el "Cuervo" Larroque y "Wado" de Pedro.

Repasaron algunas anécdotas, como el llamado del Papa a la abuela del"Cuervo" desde un celular en Santa Marta para saludarla por el cumpleaños. Alguno de los presentes dio pistas de ese contacto: el Papa supo de la abuela de Larroque por el hijo de Valdés, Juan Manuel, dirigente del peronismo porteño, en una charla en Roma. Este joven le contó a Francisco que Larroque preparaba materias del secundario en la casa de esa abuela y que allí había tomado el hábito de leer la Biblia y hasta hacer anotaciones personales. Esa historia conmovería a Francisco, al punto de que quebró los protocolos con la llamada.

Algunos de los presentes aportaron otras anécdotas de juventud ligadas a la piedad cristiana, que divirtieron al pasaje, como una que relató otro ex seminarista sobre la prohibición a los novicios de leer el Cantar de los Cantares del Antiguo Testamento por el subido tono emocional que produce en algunos entendimientos. La charla se cortó cuando uno llegó al extremo de preguntar si es cierto que, en las confesiones de seminaristas, les cuantifican la penitencia después de averiguar sobre prácticas solitarias que son la sal de la adolescencia.

En ausencia de algunos de ellos, se liberaron algunas lenguas en el avión, lo que permitió conocer algunos hilos desconocidos de la trama política del debate de la Ley de Medios. Por ejemplo, las visitas del laico Del Corral al quincho de la casa de Mariotto en Lomas de Zamora, para parlamentar en torno a algunas cláusulas de esa ley que Bergoglio apoyó cuando se sancionó.

También se comentó con risas acerca de la sorpresa de uno de los secretarios del Papa cuando vio la escultura de la Virgen Desatanudos (que cultiva Bergoglio con el mismo énfasis de Elisa Carrió) que llevó de regalo la presidente. "¡Mamma mia!", exclamó Georg Gänswein, un austríaco que Francisco heredó de Benedicto XVI, famoso por su porte personal, que le ha valido el mote del "George Clooney del Vaticano". Esa escultura  representaba a la Virgen y otros personajes dentro de una caja con luces y animación que hizo Fernando Pugliese (hermano del llorado"Nono" y responsable de las imágenes del parque temático Tierra Santa en la Costanera) con destino original para la Casa Rosada. Cuando se enteró de que la reenviarían a Roma, declinó cobrar sus honorarios artísticos. Pugliese se pasó la noche antes del almuerzo del sábado, contaban en el avión, sin dormir armando la escultura que provocó el"¡Mamma mia!" del guapo secretario, a quien la gente se le acercaba para sacarse fotos. Toda una estrella.

A Domínguez, jefe de los diputados, lo acosaron en el avión por su reticencia para repartir botellas del blend Papa Francisco, caldo cuya producción negoció con los vitivinícolas de la COVIAR (ente de promoción de vinos) con variedades de cepas que se producían en todas las provincias vitivinícolas. Julián llegó al Vaticano con unas botellas de muestra que le regaló al pontífice, pero prolongó la promesa de que en algún momento iba a llegar la barrica de 500 litros que venía anunciando hacía tiempo para que las misas del Vaticano se rezaran con vinos argentinos. Prometió que haría una cata para amigos en la Cámara de Diputados antes de que saliera esa barrica, y todos se anotaron.

Aunque Cristina no participó de la jarana de alto vuelo del Tango 01, algunos que pudieron hablar con ella revelaron algunas inquietudes de Francisco que fueron tema de conversación de un almuerzo a solas, y más que largo (2 horas y 34 minutos, cronometró uno). Por ejemplo, el enojo con su secretario Guillermo Karcher por haber dicho antes de este viaje que a él le preocupaba"la gobernabilidad" en la Argentina. ¿Llamó el Papa"Figuretti" a Karcher por esos excesos? Nadie quiso confirmarlo, aunque se sabía del malestar del pontífice por personas que le atribuían juegos en los que él no estaba.

Otra de las inquietudes de esa charla fue el enojo del Papa con el empresario Rupert Murdoch, propietario de The Times y de The Wall Street Journal, por publicar comentarios críticos hacia su papado, que además tocaban al Gobierno argentino. El viernes de esa semana, el Journal había publicado una nota del lobbista Romain Hatchuel en la que señalaba a los billonarios de Wall Street, y entre ellos a Paul Singer, como luchadores de la libertad contra gobiernos como los de Vladímir Putin en Rusia, Recep Erdogan en Turquía y Cristina de Kirchner en la Argentina, a los que señalaba como autoritarios y antimercado. En la delegación, ese día circulaban copias de la traducción de esa nota que se demonizó pulcramente en el almuerzo vaticano."De Rusia a la Argentina —dice el acápite de esa publicación—, los megarricos a veces, inadvertidamente, empujan a favor de la libertad y la vigencia de la ley. "Murdoch, se quejaría el Papa en esos diálogos, era visto como la cabecera de un frente contra las críticas de Francisco contra los especuladores financieros.

No faltó en esas charlas la pregunta sobre otro misterio vaticano: por qué el Papa le había confiado al ex subsecretario de la Presidencia de Carlos Menem, el democristiano Ricardo Romano, nada menos que la misión de llevarle una carta personal al presidente de China. Romano había estado con el pontífice, los secretarios Pietro Parolin y Dominique Mamberti, pocos días antes, en el mismo despacho donde estuvieron el sábado Timerman y Oliveri repasando temas comunes a los dos Estados.

Bergoglio está convencido de que ayudó a que Cristina terminase su mandato presidencial. La sostuvo desde la primera vez. En esa primera cita, actuó ante ella como cura y la hizo llorar dos horas. Entró a lo más profunda de su alma y percibió, según quienes tuvieron conocimiento de primera mano de esa reunión, el estado psicológico de la presidente. Esa confesión no fue sobre política, sino sobre su situación personal interior, la viudez, la soledad. No hay fotos de la salida de esa reunión, porque se quiso evitar mostrar su estado de ánimo. Cristina recién habló días más tarde.

Eso estableció un tipo de relación que duró hasta el final de su mandato, a través de conversaciones directas y de emisarios. "Lo que viste el 9 de diciembre de 2015″, le dijo el Papa a uno de sus confidentes más cercanos,"hubiera sido un desastre cuatro meses antes." Ella, cree el Papa, no estaba para entregar el Gobierno. Había dicho, cuando el peronismo perdió las elecciones:"No me imagino poniéndole la banda a Macri". Cumplió; se la puso a Federico Pinedo, presidente provisional del Senado durante doce horas hasta que juró el nuevo presidente.